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Squrl, Morgan Doctor and Nia Keturah highlight the Anti-Hit List

This mischievous Paris band makes the languid Gorillaz hit sound as though it’s never had even a passing acquaintance with reggae; makes it sound, in fact, like it’s never been exposed to sunlight. Imagine an outtake from The Triplets of Belleville soundtrack, and you’ll find yourself in the right ballpark. (bit.ly/14ilOb9 )

9. CHAPEL CLUB

“Shy”

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The first time around, this London band approximated an Echo and the Bunnymen tribute act (http://bit.ly/dztu5c ). For album No. 2, they’ve morphed into something more diverting: a satisfyingly convincing dream-pop throwback, but one without a specific antecedent. The switch seems to have loosened them up. “Shy” may occasionally betray its influences, but it has so thoroughly absorbed them that they feel like a constituent part rather than the entire goal. (From Good Together, out June 3, http://vevo.ly/12OEdtq )

8. DEL-LORDS

“When the Drugs Kick In”

The kickoff track on the first studio album in 23 years from this Americana-before-it-was-called-that outfit sounds less like the snotty punk of their “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?” heyday (http://bit.ly/19oVMDQ ) and more like a belligerent cousin to “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied”-era Steve Earle (http://bit.ly/AnLE0w ). A bar-band anthem in the making. (From Elvis Club, http://del-lords.com/listen/elvis.htm )

7. CAPITAL CITIES

“Stayin’ Alive”

The measured thump and punchy synths that the L.A. duo of Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian bring to this remake make the Bee Gees anthem feel both more urban and less defiant than the original. In fact, the prevailing mood is considerably closer to trepidation than rebelliousness. You can dance to the results, but you might feel inexplicably anxious while doing so. (http://bit.ly/143Craf )

6. OLDFOLKS HOME

“Sleeper”

“The world’s first happy divorce record” (http://bit.ly/14lt6KZ ) is one way to sum up the striking new album by Winnipeg’s Ricardo Lopez-Aguilar, who holds his broken marriage up to the light and calmly scrutinizes the pieces. Graced with vocals by Keri Latimer of alt-country band Nathan (http://www.nathanmusic.ca ), this deals with the aftermath without resorting to guilt or recrimination or remorse. Set against a surprisingly uptempo beat, lyrics such as “You are not allowed to waste your life/You must know what it means to me …” convey something resembling grace. (From Black & Blue, https://soundcloud.com/oldfolkshomemusic )

5. BELL X1

“Starlings Over Brighton Pier”

Every bit as evocative as its title would suggest, this windswept ballad doesn’t sound much like the work of the band that became massive in its native Ireland with the rock-radio staples “Flame” (http://bit.ly/aiub21 ) and “Rocky Took a Lover” (http://bit.ly/12vlplA ). Delivered over a cascading piano riff, the narrator’s ache for another time and place is almost palpable. (From Chop Chop, out July 2, http://bit.ly/12bIqIz )

4. JUST HANDSHAKES

“London Bound”

If these three university friends were Canadian instead of British, this jangly model of indie pop could just as easily have been titled “Toronto Bound.” It was written, the band says (http://bit.ly/17X2wt ), about that transitory period after you graduate and before you’ve figured out what to do with your life. Then one day, when you finally manage to lift your gaze from the general vicinity of your navel, you suddenly realize your friends have lit out en masse for (fill in the blank of a major city near you). Not that we’re speaking from personal experience or anything. (From Say It, http://bit.ly/13txB7z )

3. NIA KETURAH

“Proper Poppa”

This prolific D.C. newcomer has inspired talk about a distaff Kendrick Lamar (http://bit.ly/MDg82yhttp://bit.ly/MDg82yEND ), a facile comparison that works on a superficial level — there’s an undeniably slo-mo, swaying quality to much of what she does — but falls apart once you get below the surface. She doesn’t rap about the same things, there’s a higher jazz quotient, and her use of rhythm is constantly changing, as though it were being arranged by someone who gets bored after 30 or 40 seconds. (http://bit.ly/129ImJl )

2. MORGAN DOCTOR

“Holding the Reins”

There are no words to this mesmerizing highlight from the follow-up to this Toronto percussionist’s standout 2009 album Other Life, but you get the distinct impression that Doctor has a set of lyrics running through her head as she’s playing. This feels, in other words, like an articulate instrumental. You’d certainly never guess that her resume includes everyone from Alex Lifeson to Andy Kim, but we suspect the sheer range of her session and live work has come to inform her own, though perhaps in ways that only she could discern. (From Major Over Minor, http://bit.ly/18LHTCr )

1. SQÜRL

“Pink Noise”

This is Jim Jarmusch’s band. The director of such indie classics as Stranger Than Paradise, Mystery Train and Down By Law, remember, also worked on Year of the Horse, a documentary of Neil Young and Crazy Horse and, not coincidentally, a useful sonic reference point for what he, Carter Logan and producer Shane Stoneback get up to here. Opening with a female French voice struggling, in endearing fashion, to explain the mysterious inner workings of a tape recorder, it soon erupts into a staggering, glorious squall, punctuated only by the languorous uttering of “un, deux, trois.” The result is as enigmatic and compelling as any of the film work on which Jarmusch has made his name. (From EP #1, http://bit.ly/YMc6tQ )

In the eyes of this remarkable Bay Area singer-songwriter (http://www.youtube.com/bhibhiman ), the walk of life involves a lot of falling down. Set to an arrangement of the Dire Straits hit that wouldn’t sound out of place on a John Prine album (if Prine had a full-throated voice unravaged by time and circumstance), the video stitches together some of the most memorable stunts and pratfalls Buster Keaton ever committed to film. Which is to say, some of the most memorable stunts and pratfalls ever committed to film, period.

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